By Will McGuirk
You may, at times, wonder what Protest The Hero are up to of late. We at slowcity.ca sure do. The roaring prog-metal rollers have been quiet for some time but if you have, as we have, been following the social medias you will know lead vox, Rody Walker, has been being a dad, building a lo-fi punk home gym and teasing us with news of a new album. Details are to drop soon, soon as in this week, so while we are all waiting with bated and moistly masked breath for news from the PTH camp we emailed Rody to see how Covid-19 has impacted his life and the band’s plans. AND then he teases us with news of a solo album!! Also can someone tell me how one turns the thermostat into a radio!
Slowcity.ca: Can you update me on the changes around Protest The Hero between now and the last album, have there been member changes?
Rody Walker: “There hasn’t really been any member changes since our last release. Mike’s been drumming in the band since Moe left, and Cam has been playing bass on record since Arif left. We toured with a great little bass player named Eric Gonzalvez because Cam was busy, but Cam did the bass on the new record.”
SC: How are you dealing with the planning of a record release, with physical product and tours to plan - and all in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic? What are you thinking of doing?
RW: “There’s no way to really predict when touring will be a viable option again, clearly crossing any borders is out of the question, but we don’t really even know when it’ll be okay to tour nationally. We’ll just have to wait and see what the new world looks like on the other side of this shit.”
SC: It has been sometime since the last album, is there an underlying narrative to the new album? How have the songs being made/ discovered/ created - melodies first, lyrics first? jamming? Who took the lead on this album's creation?
RW: “There is an overarching theme to the whole record, I don’t really want to spell it out just yet as I’d like for people to get an opportunity to sit with it and interpret it first. The song writing wasn’t that different than any of the other records. The dudes got together and wrote the music, sent it to me and I wrote the words and melodies at the same time.”
SC: You have been active online on the social media, what are your days like now and how do you find time to make music?
RW: “Yea it’s for sure difficult to find the time, mostly just because I’m alone with my son all day everyday. I find the time to write a little music everyday though. I often write while he’s napping. Lately I’ve been doing twitch streams and writing a bunch of garbage music for an audience.”
SC: Are you able to create and rehearse at home? if yes what is the set-up?
RW: “Oh yea, luckily I built a little studio in my basement so I could record from home, which is exactly where I did this album. It’s great, I’m actually really productive, I’ve written an absolute buttload of music. So on top of the new PTH record I’ll also be releasing self produced solo shit this year.”
SC: It may be sometime until live shows are a thing again, tell me your fondest memories of being on the road and your fave shows that PTH have performed? Remind us how much fun it is to gather for music?
RW: “We spent a long time on tour since we were very young and a lot of the magic that we once found in it had been usurped. It’s actually been more than a year since we’ve played live. I think we needed that time and maybe even more to rediscover the reasons why we loved it in the first place.”
SC: In what bands or music are you finding some solace in, what are the top five you are listening too these days?
RW: “Four Year Strong’s new record is at the very top for me right now. Mappe of’s new record ‘The Isle of Ailynn’ is incredible and constantly spinning on my record player. I’ve been listening to a Garth Brooks playlist on my thermostat a lot, because he signed an exclusive deal with Amazon and I refuse to pay for Amazon music. Finally in the wake of his recent death we’ve been tossing on a lot of John Prine, one of the finest songwriters and story tellers of our lifetimes.”